The Roommate's Cruel Game

small duffel bag with a change of clothes, my laptop, and my most important textbooks. I wasn' t sure w

water bottle, Tiffany was already there. She was sitting at the small

aid, her voice s

ust continued to the

id. "Brett... he gets so protective of me

rned to face her. I held her ga

ressive performance. "It was horrible. I feel awful. I yelled at him for h

I said, my voice flat and col

o leave th

her voice cracking. "Please d

e minute she' s orchestrating an attack o

o you can have your boyfriend rough me up agai

up. "That post wasn' t about you! It was

ng to my intelligence, that all my

going to the housing office thi

hing toward me. "We' re roommate

oyfriends shove their friend

d to the front door, slingi

"If you leave, it' ll look bad for me. Pe

r non-existent friendship. It was about her image. My lea

blem," I said, my h

torial whisper. "I can help you. With your internship. My father knows

g, glittering bribe. She thought she c

ship on my own merit,

into the hallway, pulling it shu

for an hour just to speak to a student advisor, a tired-looking w

g out the physical part for a moment. I just said we w

Ms. Miller," she said, her tone bored. "We have a waitlist for

flict," I said, my frustration gro

looked at me. "Assaulted? Did you f

father is a trustee. And she was

ithout a report, it' s just your word against theirs. Th

ever. The system was designed to protect peop

but no one had a spare couch for more than a night or two. I was running out of options. As

t was a text from

your day? Fre

and steady, the complete opposite of the chaos that was my life right n

texted back. "Can we

As soon as I sat down across from him in the worn-out vinyl booth, the whole story came tumbling out. Th

and more serious. He didn' t interrupt. When I was fi

e said. "This isn' t just a

to do. The university won' t help me without a r

"We need to document everything. Every text, every interaction. If he ever touches you again

logical. For the first time all

onight?" I asked. "I

eaving no room for argument. "My roommate' s ou

me so intensely it

tarted ringing. It was Tiffany. I ignored it. I

e are you? I'

e home. I ma

lk to you. It'

ed to be he

ne. "Don' t answer. Y

sages were unsettling. Her manuf

en my phone buzzed with one last mess

of the sharp steak knives from our kitchen block,

t, a single

ght do something crazy. I can'